IOC chief will live in village

The International Olympic Committee president will be staying in the athletes' village during the Turin Games, just as he did in Salt Lake City and Athens.

"I tested my mattress this morning," Rogge said during a visit to the village Tuesday.

Rogge is residing in a hotel during International Olympic Committee meetings this week, but will move into the village after the games start Friday.

"Each village has its own atmosphere, its own identity," he said. "This is a village that is very well equipped, state-of-the-art. This is a village that is really in the center of the city, and this is something special."

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Rogge said the village should help dispel Turin's image as a gray, staid city.

"There was a legend, because I think it's not reality, that Torino was maybe a little bit too serious a city, industrial, hard-working, very efficient," he said. "But a village like this gives a lot of color."

The tour ended with a signing ceremony for the Olympic Truce, an initiative aimed at stopping armed conflicts during the Feb. 10-26 Games. The truce has received backing from the U.N. General Assembly since 1993.

Some scratch

The Turin Olympics won the lottery.

Italy's government won a confidence vote Tuesday in Rome tied to financing for the Winter Olympics, including a scratch-card lottery that should produce $24.1 million in revenue.

The measure, which passed the lower house of government 307-207, won approval in the Senate late last month.

American ice

In a land famous for its gelato, an American has the cool task of keeping the ice just right for some of Turin's Olympic skaters.

Dennis Allen is in charge of the ice at Palavela, the arena where the figure skating and short track speedskating take place. Keeping athletes in both sports happy is no mean feat.

"Figure skaters enjoy softer ice, they want the blade to go into it. Short track skaters, instead, want harder, faster ice. They want to stay on top of it, they want the skates to grip a little bit," Allen said.

He must adjust the temperature -- and do it quickly. For short track, it has to be about 16-18 degrees; for figure skating, about 23-25 degrees.

To warm up the ice, Allen pours water on it. To freeze it harder, he can open the doors to the arena -- as long as it's cold outside.

Italian ice

Someone clearly objected to the U.S. men's figure skating team jumping to the head of the security line Thursday morning.

As the athletes and coaches were being escorted through a checkpoint at the Main Press Center for an early news conference, a piece of ice "about the size of a quarter" struck Frank Carroll, the renowned coach for Evan Lysacek, said U.S. Figure Skating spokeswoman Lindsay DeWall.

She said nobody was hurt. It could not be determined who threw it and security was apparently not involved.

Elias callup

New Jersey Devils left wing Patrik Elias was called up to the Czech national squad to replace injured Petr Prucha of the New York Rangers at the Winter Olympics.

Prucha, 23, who has scored 25 goals and had nine assists in his debut NHL season, injured his left knee in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday and was expected to be sidelined four to six weeks.

Elias was originally left off the team by coach Alois Hadamczik on Dec. 22 because he had just returned to practice after missing several months with hepatitis.